It is fair to say that Andy Scott did not see the 2008 financial crash coming.
The entrepreneur was a property developer who had built up a chain of eight hotels along the south coast of England.
He was enjoying the fruits of a debt-fuelled lifestyle. “Everyone was throwing money at you in those days,” he said. “I had all the toys — a yacht, a Ferrari.”
That all changed with the crisis. His loans were called in and the hotels repossessed. Scott’s business was put into administration and he ended up working on a building site. “I got wiped out,” he added. “I was in my twenties and had never seen an economic cycle. It was a tough time.”
The experience of seeing his